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I have known Weeqi for almost 7 years. We got to know each other through serving in Security Ministry.

The bunch of us were busy with his wedding preparations from more than a month before. After I came back from London, it was the next thing I was looking forward to. There was hardly any rest for me because there was simply not enough time.

The bunch of us, 6 in total, spent our entire Friday evening setting up the church hall. There were last minute changes and plenty of chairs to shift. It was back-breaking work, but we managed to leave the church slightly before midnight.

Saturday morning, with only 3 hours of sleep, we all made our way down to church where the matrimony was held. Most, if not all, of the sequence of the matrimony and its events were carried out smoothly. There were smiles all around.

Weeqi had to rush off for an exam at 4pm. It was so hectic for him, but this is what gives when you study and work at the same time – You will be stretched.

We met up with him after his exams to help him count the angbao collections from the matrimony, as well as prepare everything he needs for the gatecrashing and dinner banquet on Sunday.

With only 4 hours of sleep, I made my way down to Weeqi’s house at 6am to help him videotape the preparations. (The actual photographer and videographer were at the bride’s house.) Although we were all still sleepy and slightly fatigued, that was no excuse for the minor screw ups that took place in the morning. We were late for more than 15 minutes.

All ended well, and the banquet was rushed but pleasant. Again, there were smiles all around. It was nice seeing people whom I have not met for the longest while in recent years.

I guess if life was literally a journey, you get to win some and you will also lose some. Maybe you may have lost some people at the moment, but further down the road, there might be opportunities aplenty for you to welcome them back into your life again.

I headed to London the week before, and at the boarding gates, I couldn’t help but notice that the entire hall is surprisingly empty for an A380 flight. I checked with counter and I was told that there was only a 40% load.

Looked more like 14% to me! I took all 4 aisle seats and made myself comfortable. First-class economy seating.

I have been monitoring the weather forecasts in London a week prior to my arrival, and I was anticipating an extremely cold environment. I brought with me a thick outer jacket, an inner fleece jacket and many sets of Uniqlo heat tech. However, they turned out to be an overkill because I actually started perspiring, and from then on, I decided to lose 2 layers and only wear my outer jacket.

The temperatures were still quite cold, but bearable.

I like doing walkabout shots. Usually I’ll just sling my DSLR around my arm and snap photos of things that I see along the way. Other times, I’ll just use my iPhone when I get lazy of adjusting my DSLR settings.

Unfortunately, there was one time the weather got too cold for my hands and my phone slipped out because my hand was too numb. It was a really sad incident for me because that was the first time in the past 2 months that I had been using my new iPhone.

But anyway, I would say I am pretty well-prepared for this trip because I did very meticulous planning of my itinerary. It was right down to every detail, and I didn’t have to waste a lot of time navigating around or getting lost.

Shopping in London wasn’t that fantastic. There weren’t a lot of cheap deals because things are priced at almost the same rates in Singapore. I did manage to get a SGD690 Bottega Veneta wallet for only SGD460 though.

One thing that I really liked about London was the public transport. The London Underground basically connects you to any part of London and the frequency of the trains are only 1-3 minutes regardless of peak hour or not. There are limited bus services, but it was very helpful for commuters when they announce the name of the next bus stop whenever the bus leaves the current stop.

London isn’t necessarily a great holiday destination since you can finish exploring the city within a week, but it sure seems like a great place to live in.